Counting Down To Zimbabwe Hosting Data Centre Africa 2018 For The First Time

Zimbabwe will for the first time host the Data Centre Africa Expo Conference (DCA). Data Centre Conferences occur worldwide, all in a bid to discover, discuss, learn and take advantage of opportunities that data centres present, particularly in this digital age.

A data centre is a facility that centralises an organization’s IT operations and equipment, as well as where it stores, manages, and disseminates its data.

I’m sure you remember how TelOne launched an open to the public data centre early last year, in March (probably the reason why it is now relevant for us to host such an event). For us (Techzim) this was (is) a big deal because currently, most IT companies etc. have to host their data in international servers due to the lack of such open-to-the-public facilities locally.

Hosting servers in other countries has its fair share of challenges and the one I would presume to be the biggest challenge at present is one to do with payment. Therefore, not only will the availability of local data centres solve the challenges associated with using foreign currency to pay for such facilities; but it will also save the country from continuously ‘losing’ foreign currency to other countries.

Nonetheless, the DCA event is scheduled to take place from the 7th to the 9th of February 2018. It is going to take place in Victoria Falls (Elephant Hills Hotel); quite an ideal venue if we’re going to take advantage of this international audience to boost our tourism industry and get a little more foreign currency while we’re at it.

The Data Centre Africa Expo Conference is meant to attract various expertise and industries including Data Centre service firms, Data Centre Managers, investors, innovators, European and global organisations, Network Systems and Security professionals, senior IT professionals, Chief Technical Officers and Infrastructure Managers to mention but a few.

Lined up for the two days are exhibitions and Certified Data Centre Professional (CDCP) training. Exhibitions will mostly be carried out by the various representatives from the various disciplines mentioned above (about 234  already registered), while the training will be conducted by EPI.

The training will be open to the public… the paying public of course, but the point is; there are no specific prerequisites for one to take part in the CDCP course. However, those with at least one year experience in a data centre or facilities environment are more ideally suited.

If interested, the tickets for the event range from $668.24 – $65,524.95 and you can buy one here.  You can also get more information on the DCA website by clicking here.

Hopefully, the event will meet its objective of growing the data centre market as well as conscientise the ICT industry of the development centered on such initiatives.